[News] Black Woman Was Imprisoned and Tortured by Whites

[Anti-Imperialist News]

September 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/us/12captive.html?ref=us

Woman, 20, Was Imprisoned and Tortured, Police Say

By CHRIS STRATTON and 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/index.html?inline=nyt-per>IAN 
URBINA

LOGAN, W.Va., Sept. 11 ­ A 20-year-old woman was 
held captive for more than a week in a mobile 
home here, where she was raped, stabbed and 
tortured by at least a half-dozen people, the 
police said. Sheriff’s deputies rescued her on 
Saturday, and she remained hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition.

“I’ve been in law enforcement for more than 30 
years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen 
anything of this nature,” the Logan County sheriff, Eddie Hunter, said.

Six people, including a mother and her son and a 
mother and her daughter, have been charged in the case.

The police said the people charged, all of whom 
are white, yelled racial slurs at the woman, who 
is black, during some of the attacks. The woman 
endured horrific torture, according to court 
documents. She was raped by multiple men, some of 
whom poured scalding water on her during the 
assaults, according to the criminal complaints.

She was forced to lick up blood, eat animal feces 
and drink water from a toilet, the documents 
said, and she was also stabbed repeatedly in the 
leg and was told that if she tried to leave, she would be killed.

The police said that more than a week ago, the 
victim went with Bobby R. Brewster, 24, who she 
believed was a friend, to the trailer where he 
lives with his mother, Frankie Lee Brewster, 49, 
in Big Creek, in the northern end of Logan County.

On Tuesday, the police were interviewing the 
victim further about two more people she said were involved.

On Saturday, Logan County deputies received a tip 
about a woman being held against her will at the 
Brewster residence. A person working in the area 
had heard disturbing noises coming from the 
trailer and seen the victim with cuts on her leg 
through the window, the police said.

“Upon the deputies’ arrival, they found Mrs. 
Frankie Brewster sitting on the front porch,” a 
police report says. The deputies asked Mrs. 
Brewster if anyone else was at the residence and she said she was alone.

As she was talking, the police documents say, 
Mrs. Brewster got up and stepped toward the door, 
when a woman inside the residence limped toward 
the door with her arms held out and said, “Help 
me.” The woman’s eyes were bruised and she had 
four large stab wounds on her left leg, the police said.

Police documents say Mrs. Brewster admitted to 
holding the victim at the trailer against her will and beating her.

The victim was taken to Logan Regional Hospital 
and then to the General Hospital of Charleston 
Area Medical Center, where she underwent surgery for her leg wounds.

Mrs. Brewster was charged with sexual assault, 
kidnapping, malicious wounding and giving false 
statements to an officer. Mr. Brewster was 
charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, 
malicious wounding and assault during the commission of a felony.

The Brewster family and their trailer has a 
history of violent crime, the police said.

Mr. Brewster killed his stepfather there when he 
was 12, the authorities said, and served time at 
a juvenile correction facility.

In July 1994, Mrs. Brewster shot and killed an 
84-year-old woman she was looking after, also in 
the trailer, according to court records.

Mrs. Brewster, who was charged with first-degree 
murder, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter 
and served six years at a state correctional 
facility. She was paroled in 2000.

In 2005, two men got into a fight outside the 
trailer, the police said, ending with a fatal stabbing.

In January, the police were again called to the 
trailer, where they found a man who had been 
slashed across his abdomen; the man survived, 
according to court documents, and Mr. Brewster was a witness in that case.

Also being held in the case of the young woman 
were Danny J. Combs, 20, who was charged with 
sexual assault and malicious wounding; George A. 
Messer, 27, who was charged with assault during 
the commission of a felony and battery; Karen 
Burton, 46, who was charged with malicious 
wounding, battery and assault during the 
commission of a felony; and her daughter, Alisha 
Burton, 23, who was charged with assault during 
the commission of a felony and battery. The four 
were being held in $100,000 bond each.

The Brewsters were being held pending bond hearings.

The authorities said they were still deciding 
whether to file additional charges, of hate crimes, against the defendants.

“The whole family is shocked,” a sister of the victim said.

The victim, who, relatives said, has mild 
learning disabilities but graduated from high 
school although she did not attend college. The 
sister would not comment on whether the victim was living at home or had a job.

Chris Stratton reported from Logan, W.Va., and Ian Urbina from Washington.




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